SpaceX successfully launches two communications satellites
SpaceX today successfully launched its third pair of communications satellites for the Luxembourg satellite company SES, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its ninth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
83 SpaceX
51 China
14 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
7 India
American private enterprise now leads China 95 to 51 in successful launches, and the entire world combined 95 to 80. SpaceX by itself is now leads the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 83 to 80.
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SpaceX today successfully launched its third pair of communications satellites for the Luxembourg satellite company SES, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its ninth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
83 SpaceX
51 China
14 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
7 India
American private enterprise now leads China 95 to 51 in successful launches, and the entire world combined 95 to 80. SpaceX by itself is now leads the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 83 to 80.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
If SpaceX can sustain this current pace, they *would* hit exactly 100 for this year.
That assumes *everything* goes right, of course. Which it likely will not. But finishing with 95+ launches for the year would be simply staggering. There is just no precedent for what we are seeing now.
Meanwhile, Rocket Lab is resuming launches, with a window opening for the iQPS payload on November 28.
I don’t expect them to hit 100, but mid-90s would still be impressive. Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are coming up. Musk might push his own people through those, but he can’t push NASA or the Space Force. He’ll need Space Force for range safety.
Diane Wilson,
SpaceX has no scheduled NASA payloads launching during the remainder of the year. The Dragon for the recently launched CRS-29 mission will be returning in early December, but that will be after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. The Space Force doesn’t take any holidays off. But the SpaceX Falcons, which use an Automated Flight Termination System, require no range safety assets anyway. SpaceX may or may not make 100 Falcon launches for 2023, but if it falls short, it won’t do so because of holidays or range safety asset non-availability.
I’m going to drop this in here:
Lex Fridman Podcast Number 400
November 9, 2023
“Elon Musk: AI, Aliens, Politics, Physics, Video Games, and Humanity….”
https://youtu.be/JN3KPFbWCy8
2:16:46
Musk is very interesting in the long-form back-n-forth. I think it gives one a much better idea of where his head is actually at vs. how he’s portrayed in ‘media.’
If they miss 100, it will be due to a) payload delays, b) weather, or c) technical difficulties at the launch pad.
But they have a shot. Their paced is just blistering right now.
Diane Wilson and Dick Eagleson,
NASA, launch crews, test crews, security officers, etc. are all too aware that work may continue through holidays. One compensation is the bragging rights about how many holidays were missed, hours spent awake straight, number of days in a row worked, etc. These workers get to show just how dedicated they are to spaceflight and space exploration. When we start comparing war stories, I lose pretty early on.
SpaceX’s launch crews are the busiest that I have ever heard of (duh). I’m sure that any of them that get a holiday off, this season, would be very appreciative.